Mary Thompson

Quick Facts

Significance:

Alabama Homesteader

Place of Birth:

Alabama

Date of Birth:

ca. 1835

Place of Death:

Coffee County, Alabama

Date of Death:

November 15th, 1888

Mary Thompson was born in 1835 in Alabama. She was married during enslavement to Solomon Thompson and is enumerated with him on the 1866 Alabama State Census in Dale County, and the 1870 Federal Census in Coffee County, Alabama. The couple has not been found in the 1880 Federal Census, and Mary’s last record during her lifetime was made on October 6th, 1883, when she filed Homestead Application No. 14811 in Elba, Alabama.

Mary testified in her Homestead Affidavit that she was the head of her family, suggesting that Solomon Thompson had since passed away. She gave January 10th, 1873, as her settlement commencement date, and listed improvements to the land such as “a single room dwelling house, corn crib, smokehouse, and 15 acres of open land.” Mary filed her application, made her affidavit, and enclosed her fourteen-dollar fee at the Coffee County Courthouse in Elba, Alabama. They reached the Receiver’s Office in Montgomery, Alabama on October 12th, 1883. Mary was required to cultivate her land for at least five years before returning to the courthouse to make her homestead proof.

Unfortunately, Mary died on November 15th, 1888, just over a month after she became eligible to make her final affidavit.

On February 19th, 1890, a notice appeared in the Coffee County News announcing that Mary’s son Green Thompson would make final proof in his mother’s name on April 19th, 1890. Green went to the courthouse on that date with his witnesses, Solomon K. Sconyers and Henry Goodwin, who were fellow homesteaders. They testified that the property now had a kitchen, 20 acres of broken and plowed land, and various crops including corn, cotton, peas, and potatoes. Green, Henry, and Solomon returned to the courthouse together on July 11th, 1890, to swear to the names of all the heirs of Mary Thompson. They listed Green Thompson, his sister Adeline Thompson, and the children of their sister Dicy Thompson Lee: Prince, Solomon, Mitchell, Alice, Emma, and Mattie. Adeline, and Dicy’s widower John F. Lee, both had their own homesteads that neighbored Mary’s.

The final entry fee of four dollars reached the Receiver’s Office in Montgomery on July 16th, 1890. The Land Office then issued Final Certificate No. 9401 which entitled the minor heirs of Mary Thompson to 160.40 acres of land in the 28th section of Township 3N of Range 22E of the St. Stephens Principal Meridian. The certificate was returned to Montgomery in October of 1891 because Green and Adeline were not minors and they wanted to correct the certificate, if necessary. Green made yet another affidavit on February 9th, 1892, to testify that he and Adeline were twenty-eight and twenty-five years old respectively. He also gave various genealogical information such as the death date of his mother, the name of his father, and the married name of his sister. Green stated that he and Adeline McCarty were the only living children of Mary Thompson, implying that several of their siblings had passed away. Solomon and Mary had four children in their household on the 1870 United States Census, none of whom were Green or Adeline. Death records were not required by the State of Alabama until 1908, so this affidavit is essentially the only death information ascertainable about these individuals.

After the certificate was corrected with red ink, The Heirs of Mary Thompson were finally presented with a patent to their land dated April 16th, 1892, and approved under the leadership of President Benjamin Harrison. No subsequent records of Adeline McCarty have been discovered. Dicy Lee’s children don’t appear to have stayed on the land. Solomon Lee married Georgia Holstead and moved to Jersey City, New Jersey where he died in 1918. Emma Lee married James Wright in 1899, but it is unclear what happened to her after that. Green Thompson had been married to Dora Bryant since 1879. She birthed fourteen children, ten of whom lived past adolescence. Green and Dora remained in the area of Mary’s land until their deaths, but never were recorded as landowners on any census.

Green Thompson died on May 1st, 1935, in Chancellor, Alabama. Dora Bryant Thompson died on May 7th, 1939, in Bellwood, Alabama. Chancellor and Bellwood are neighborhoods of Geneva County, near the border shared with Coffee County. Mary Thompson’s land was bordered by the Coffee/Geneva county line on the south, Thomas Road on the west, and County Road 732 on the north. Mary Thompson was only fifty-three years old when she died. I can’t imagine how difficult it was for Green to become an orphan as he was raising his young family, and then move to this homestead to complete his mother’s work. The patent is dated over nineteen years after Mary’s settlement on the land. This family’s dedication to finishing this process should be commended. I feel a deep connection to this land patent as a great-great-great grandson of Solomon and Mary. I am proud to be one of The Heirs of Mary Thompson.

~Contributed by Orice Jenkins

Orice Jenkins
Photo Credit: Edward LaRose

Orice Jenkins is from Hartford, Connecticut and is the great-great grandson of Green Thompson. He is a recording artist, genealogist, and educator.